Countries are now reviewing their national laws on intellectual property

to try to bring them into line with their obligations under the TRIPS
agreement. This national process is likely to accelerate the biopiracy
phenomenon. With careful and intelligent legal and policy choices,
developing countries can try to avoid some of the worse aspects of
implementing their TRIPS obligations. But a fundamental rethink and
amendment of the multilateral rules is essential if the injustice done to
local communities and to indigenous knowledge by biopiracy is to be
corrected.
Martin Khor (twnet@po.jaring.my) is Director of the Third World Network, a
network of NGOs in diVerent parts of the developing world. An economist trained
at Cambridge University who has lectured in economics at the Science University of
Malaysia, he is the author of books and articles on trade, development, and
environment issues. He is also honorary secretary of the Consumers Association of
Penang in Malaysia and a boardmember of the International ForumonGlobalization.
This is an edited version of an article rst written for SciDev.Net (www.scidev.net).
COMMENT
The importance of ICTs for
developing countries
JESU

S MARTI

NEZ-FRI

AS
Centre for Astrobiology, Madrid, Spain and UNCSTD, Geneva, Switzerland
According to data from the OCLC Public AVairs Information Service
based on a recent European Commission report,1 a third of the worlds
population has never made a phone call. This fact emphasises what has
become known as the digital divide the tremendous gap between people
with access to information technology ( IT), and those without. Not long
ago talk of IT to most people signied computers. However, with the
rapid and ongoing change in the IT world, computers and communication
systems such as telephones and modern fax machines are increasingly
using the same technology.
The ICT
revolution
Information and communications technologies ( ICTs) is an umbrella term
which is currently used to refer to a wide range of services (telephony,
fax, internet ), applications (such as distance education and management
information systems), and technologies (anything from old technologies
such as television to new technologies such as cellular phones), using
various types of equipment and software, often running over telecoms net-
works. The ICT (or information, or communications, or microprocessor)
revolution is radically aVecting the way we share information about
development issues; and governments, NGOs, businesses, institutions, and
individuals have jumped on the bandwagon to make ICTs part of their
day to day organisational processes. Moreover, the revolution brings
leverage in the two essential commodities of time and distance, which in
business terms translate into eYciency and cost. The issue of transparency
is easier to manage with ICTs, which may result in monetary savings in
addition to stakeholder condence in development processes and systems.
However it is also true that if care is not taken to ensure that ICT
provision and use is tailored to the specic needs of the groups that really
need them, there is a danger that existing alienation and marginalisation
will be reinforced and increase.2
10 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 2003, VOL. 28, NO. 1 2003 IoM Communications Ltd DOI 10.1179/030801803225010304
Published by Maney for the Institute of Mat erials, Minerals and Mining
There is general agreement that ensuring access to the fundamental tools
of the digital society is one of the most signicant investments the world
can make for the future. But the worlds most valuable resource is its
people. Thus, the signicance of ICTs is not in the technologies as such,
but in the possibilities they open up for access to knowledge, information,
and communications, elements of ever increasing importance in present
day economic and social interaction. While some of the issues surrounding
ICTs have similarities with those in other areas of infrastructure, such as
roads, postal services, and railways, others are of course diVerent and
highly specic, with the potential to produce diVerential development of
local and global cultures.
ICTs in the UN
context
In this context, in March 2001 the United Nations Economic and Social
Council requested the UN Secretary-General to establish an Information
and Communication Technologies Task Force. This initiative aims to
provide a truly global dimension to the large number of local and regional
eVorts to bridge the digital divide, to encourage digital opportunity, and
to place ICTs at the service of development for all. The Task Force is an
innovative mechanism in that it is the rst body created by an intergovern-
mental decision of the UN in which members representing governments,
civil society, and organisations of the United Nations system have equal
decisionmaking power. To achieve its goals, the Task Force has set
up collaborative links with governments, the private sector, non-prot
organisations, the academic community, multilateral institutions, and the
civil society/NGO community, as well as with other similar initiatives and
activities at all levels.3 It held its inaugural meeting on 1920 November
2001, at which six thematic working groups were established which were
open for participation by non-members of the Task Force.
ICT for development is one of the key areas on STDev, UNCTADs
internet gateway on science and technology for development.4 This gateway
hosts the homepage of the UN Commission on Science and Technology
for Development ( UNCSTD), provides continuously updated information
on best practice in the assessment, transfer, adaptation, and mastery of
technology, and also oVers opportunities for partnering and networking
in science and technology. On the subject of ICTs, a signicant statement
was recently made by the Chair of UNCSTD, Professor Vijaya Kumar of
Sri Lanka. He made clear that ICTs provide developing countries with an
opportunity to increase eYciency in public administration and the business
arena, enhance industrial productivity, and promote competitiveness in
trade and commerce. However, he also stressed that most developing
countries have neither the infrastructure nor the human resources necessary
to fully exploit the potential of ICTs. Even where ICT facilities are
available, these are often restricted to urban areas and elites, since the
costs of ICTs are high when compared with the incomes earned by most
inhabitants of developing countries. The digital divide thus not only
deprives the poorer developing countries from becoming full and dynamic
members of the global economy, it also deprives poorer citizens within
these states of the benets of ICTs.
Various recent international ICT related programmes have been initiated in
the context of the UN system. At its fth session, held in Geneva in 2001,
UNCSTD selected as the theme for its intersessional period 20012003
Technology development and capacity-building for competitiveness in a
digital society.5 The programme for this intersessional period is being
carried out by three panels addressing specic aspects of the main theme,
with particular attention being given to assimilation and application of
ICTs for the purpose of enhancing competitiveness of developing countries
and countries with economies in transition. The rst of the panels is
studying indicators of technological development for stocktaking purposes.
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 2003, VOL. 28, NO. 1 11
The second is exploring the link between foreign direct investment ( FDI ),
technology development for capacity building, and strategic competitive-
ness. Lastly, the third panel is concentrating on the transfer, diVusion,
and use of ICTs.
Technology and
economic
development
The rst panel met in Geneva in May 2002 to identify the most important
factors aVecting technological mastery and development for competitive-
ness, to attempt to measure them, and to provide a rational explanation
of their determinants. In addressing the need for technology indicators, it
was decided that countries should be grouped into those that were
catching up, keeping up, and getting ahead. It was agreed that the key
objective of collecting a set of indicators was in order to identify policies
and programmes. Indicators should not merely be based on economic
parameters, but should also include factors concerned directly with
scientic and technological development.6
More specically, an excellent working document was presented by the
secretariat of the UNCSTD, including a comparative analysis of scientic
and technological development in around ninety countries in terms
of nancial resourcing of research (R&D expenditure as a proportion of
national income), human capital (enrolments in tertiary education and
number of personnel engaged in R&D), as well as export performance
(high technology exports as a proportion of total merchandise exports).
These various aspects are strongly correlated, with high correlations
observed between R&D, human capital, and export performance for the
period 199599. It was on the basis of the indicators that countries were
categorised as catching up, keeping up, or getting ahead, the resulting
rankings being reasonably stable over time, though with some regional
eVects apparent. In general terms, Latin American and transitional
economies are classied as keeping up, and OECD and some South East
Asian countries as getting ahead. This generalisation does however mask
substantial variations in countries experiences, with transitional economies
above all showing great diVerences in all indicators except education and
human capital, where they are consistently strong. Data limitations meant
that African and South Asian countries had to be largely omitted from
this analysis.
Investing in
infrastructure
The second panel, meeting in Sri Lanka in October 2002, paid attention
to the strategic use of FDI to transfer technology and to build ICT
capabilities. In addition, it examined instruments that could be utilised to
achieve deep integration between foreign partners and local rms and
suppliers. Finally, the panel also addressed the importance of domestic
investment, particularly in R&D and in the ICT infrastructure for improving
industrial productivity and enhancing innovation and competitiveness.
The main results demonstrate that success in science and technology
depends critically on the ability of each system to manage technical change
eYciently, and that simply opening up to free trade, investment ows, and
external scientic and technological inputs is not an adequate strategy for
countries at the low end of the technology ladder.
Evidence from liberalising countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe,
and Ghana shows that after an initial burst of growth, economies with
static capabilities slow down as their inherited advantages are exhausted.7
Without any strategic support from government, they nd it diYcult to
bridge the gap between their skills, technologies, and scientic capabilities
and those needed for international competitiveness. This is one important
reason why liberalisation has had such poor results in sub-Saharan Africa.
Liberalisation has also led to technological regression in many countries
of Latin America, with relatively weak growth and competitiveness. The
experience of the most successful developing countries in recent economic
history (the newly industrialised economies of Asia) suggests that there is
12 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 2003, VOL. 28, NO. 1
a major role for governments in providing the collective goods needed
for sustained development. The issue is not whether governments should
intervene, but how.
Diffusion of ICTs The third UNCSTD panel, meeting in Angola in January 2003, focused
on transfer and diVusion of ICTs. This panel also examined the extent to
which ICTs are being used and diVused in developing countries and how
this can aVect their ability to catch up, keep up, and get ahead. The
panel formed a picture of the experiences of those countries that have
successfully been able to build an indigenous human resource capacity in
ICTs, in turn enabling them to become internationally competitive.
Nineteen country case studies were reviewed (Czech Republic, Singapore,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Uganda, Egypt, Cambodia, Hungary, Bolivia, Nepal,
Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Morocco, Brazil,
Peru, Botswana), as well as ten case studies for e-commerce (Bangladesh,
Cambodia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Togo,
Uganda, Tanzania).
Besides the activities of the UNCSTD, it is also important to mention the
launch in early 2002, by the UN Development Programme ( UNDP) in
partnership with the Markle Foundation and in consultation with public
and private institutions and individual expert partners, of the Global
Digital Opportunity Initiative (www.gdoi.org). This initiative is attempting
to increase the impact of ICTs in achieving developing countries develop-
ment goals by building on the strategic framework developed by the
Digital Opportunity Initiative at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, and by
working from the fact of nations growing interdependence.
Another signicant perspective was provided by the measurement carried
out by OECD of the relations between the information economy, ICT
sector data, and metadata.8 In 1998, OECD member countries agreed on
a denition of the ICT sector as a combination of manufacturing and
services industries that capture, transmit and display data and information
electronically. This denition was based on an international standard
classication of activities, as a rst step towards obtaining some insight
into core indicators for the ICT sector. The 1998 activity based denition
was reviewed in April 2002, when it was decided that although it gives
only a rst approximation of the ICT sector, for the moment it should
not be changed; instead its implementation should be improved with the
aid of more detailed national classications. This resolution will be
reexamined at a later date, in the framework of the major revision of the
International Standard Industrial Classication ( ISIC) due in 2007.9
Use of ICTs to
reduce
inequalities
It is estimated that by 2003 almost all decisions made in science and
technology, economics, and business development will be based on
information that has been generated electronically. Access to information
is thus a key factor in the generation of wealth and there is a strong link
between a nations level of development and the level of technological
uptake. Governments are the main actors here, and they need to proceed
in partnership with the key stakeholders in ICT provision including
existing and possible future carriers, internet service providers, high
technology companies, business users, educators, bankers, and community
groups in order to ensure that a comprehensive system is put in place.
Some particular goals for governments include: (i ) acting as catalysts and
giving strong leads in showing the importance of ICT use; (ii ) creating
a regulatory infrastructure to enable easy and eVective use of ICTs;
(iii) establishing genuine and productive partnerships; (iv) ensuring that
ICTs feature in the mainstream educational curriculum; (v) minimising
electronic barriers; (vi ) taking the needs of poor communities as a starting
point, rather than imposing external agenda, ideas, and expectations;
(vii) facilitating access to scientic and technological information online.
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 2003, VOL. 28, NO. 1 13
Thus, for example, ICTs can be used to erode inequalities in com-
munications, providing faster and cheaper communication as well as rapid
support and advice in times of disaster and emergency. They can also help
to reduce oppression and promote human rights by bringing greater
attention to bear on individual cases. In the same way, in education ICTs
can provide the choice of how, when, where, and at what rate to study,
enabling all levels of education to be brought to the more remote parts of
the world, and encouraging non-traditional learners to acquire basic
literacy skills.
In short, the evidence suggests that under the right conditions ICTs may
deliver substantial benets. However, signicant barriers to the eVective
uptake and use of ICTs by both developed and developing countries also
exist, recommending caution in their application. Perhaps, in the end, it
may be easier to say what ICTs are not: ICTs are not a magic potion for
development or a replacement for real world processes. It seems appro-
priate to cite the words of UN Secretary-General Ko Annan during the
formal launch of the Task Force on Information and Communications
Technology:
The new technologies that are changing our world are not a panacea or a magic
bullet. But they are, without doubt, enormously powerful tools for development.
They create jobs. They are transforming education, healthcare, commerce,
politics, and more. They can help in the delivery of humanitarian assistance and
even contribute to peace and security
Notes and literature cited
1. Information and communication technologies in development: the role of ICTs
in EC development policy, European Commission, 2001, europa.eu.int/eur-lex/
en/com/cnc/2001/com2001_0770en01.pdf
2. See for example c. jacksonet al. : Information and communications technology
and social exclusion, www.student.city.ac.uk/~dt758/PrIssuesGroupCoursework.
3. The Task Forces website is at www.unicttaskforce.org/about/principal.asp.
4. See r0.unctad.org/stdev.
5. Technology development and capacity-building for competitiveness in a digital
society, UNCSTD, 2001, r0.unctad.org/stdev/un/01-03prep.html.
6. See the online database at r0.unctad.org/stdev/database.html.
7. s. lall (ed.): The Technological Response to Import Liberalization in Subsaharan
Africa; 1999, New York, NY, St Martins Press.
8. See www.oecd.org/EN/countrylist/0,,EN-countrylist-570-1-no-no-1350-0,00.html.
9. For details of the denition, see www.oecd.org/pdf/M00035000/M00035986.pdf.
Dr Jesus Martnez-Fras (martinezfrias@mncn.csic.es) is the Spanish representative
on the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development. He is based in
the Laboratory for Planetary Geology at the Centre for Astrobiology (CSICINTA)
near Madrid, Spain.
14 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 2003, VOL. 28, NO. 1